last post.......

Last week I finished my placement in the University, during the last week I attempted to do another in situ hybridisation in order to identify where my gene of interest was expressed. Although we managed to get staining I think we rinsed the sample very fast and the majority of the staining washed away making the slide really faint and hard to visualize under the microscope. Unfortunately it is  a very tricky technique that you need to optimise for your own probe and mRNA of interest. The protocol states that the staining can be left between 10 minutes and 24 hours so, mmm hard to get it right. On my first attempt my friend and I allowed to stain for about 2 hours and the majority of our sample was really over stained and this time round we allowed the reaction to proceed for about an hour and 15 minutes and it was under stained!!!!! Shame I feel like we were so close to get it right but unfortunately my time in the lab has finished and now I got to prepare for my third year that starts next Monday!!!!

Last year I read a couple of comments before deciding to do a summer placement and now after having done it the only thing I can say is that if you are considering to do a summer placement and you are reading this.... go for it!!!! It is well worth it and I have learnt a lot, I feel more confident in the lab and more independent I feel like now I am ready for my third year project and possibly a PhD xxxx

Adriana